Carolinum we can either take the Zelezna Ulice (Iron Street), which
leads us back to the town hall, or through the Ovocni Trh (fruit
market), reach the Celetná Ulice, or return to the Graben, at the end of
which we reach the powder tower.
The new town and the Vysehrad are not equal in interest to the old town
and its sub-division, the Jewish quarter, yet here, too, there are more
objects of interest than limited space will allow me to mention.
Starting again from the powder tower, we arrive, through the Josefské
Námesti, at the angle of the Poric Street, the site of one of the oldest
settlements of Prague. Walking through this street to its end we
find--opposite the North-Western Railway Station--the new civic museum
that is far too little known to visitors. This building is quite a
modern creation, and in its present state has only been opened to the
public since 1898.
The first hall on the ground floor contains prehistoric remains,
numerous objects in glass and majolica that belonged to old Prague. The
second hall contains works in metal; particularly interesting are the
Gothic doors of a house in the Václavské Námesti, with the arms of the
old and the new towns. The third hall, devoted to ecclesiastical art,
contains many objects of great interest from various churches; a Gothic
predella, and a Gothic altar from the Castle Rabi deserve particular
notice. In this hall also are many valuable memorials of Hus; in all
these portraits, as, indeed, in all very ancient ones, he is represented
as beardless. Hall four contains many memorials of old Prague. On the
second floor we find in halls five and six a large collection of
engravings that are of immense value to the student of history. Besides
a large number of views of Prague at different periods, there is a
valuable collection referring to the Thirty Years' War. We see
representations of the defenestration, the entry of Frederick of the
Palatinate into Prague, the Battle of the White Mountain, and the
executions on the market-place, as well as an almost complete collection
of the portraits of the generals and statesmen of the Thirty Years' War.
Also on the second floor is the armoury, which well deserves the
attention of the visitor. In hall nine on this floor are flags, shields
and coats of arms that belonged to the ancient guilds of Prague. An
underground part of the museum contains the mucirna or torture-chamber,
which gives a vivid impression of the ways of mediæval justice. The
Gothic vaulting of this chamber is mediæval, and was transported here
from a house on the market-place of the old town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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